Power steers emotions to govern action below conscious awareness

Evidence

Emotions are performative in so far as they call forth certain actions. As inclinations, they represent the energetic – the sensory, or even sensuous – basis for action. Emotions are steered by the limbic system, which is also where the drives are seated. They form the pre-reflexive, half-conscious, physico-instinctual level of action that escapes full awareness. Neoliberal psychopolitics seizes on emotion in order to influence actions on this pre-reflexive level. By way of emotion, it manages to cut and operate deep inside. As such, emotion affords a highly efficient medium for psychopolitically steering the integral person, the person as a whole. — Byung-Chul Han, Psychopolitics, 110

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Emotion gives psychopolitics efficient access below conscious reflection; Affect binds individuals to the power that subjects them. — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab: A History of the…, 1153

Broader Connections

• Emotion gives psychopolitics efficient access below conscious reflection #corroborates (0.90)
• Affect binds individuals to the power that subjects them. #corroborates (0.85) — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab, 1153